Creating an Integrated System of Support Programs for Children and Their Families: An example of two local environments

Jerneja Jager and Mateja Režek

Summary:  The article presents pilot development of an integrated system of support programs for children and their families in two Slovenian municipalities. The purpose of the pilot project was to interconnect support programs of different professional fields covering different areas of child’s life (education, health, social care, culture, etc.) in different periods (pre-school, primary school). In the pilot project, we were focused on smooth transition of Romani children between different learning environments. In the case study, we explored views of members of two local action teams (LAT) on setting up an integrated system of support programs in their environments. We used a combined method of quantitative and qualitative pedagogical research (Lobe 2006), and a more comprehensive insight into the studied problem was provided by triangulation between methods (Vogrinc 2008). We have confirmed that a coherent policy on institutional and inter-institutional level is crucial for successful establishment of integrated system of support programs for children and their families (Gordon et al. 2016). We also confirmed the importance of appropriate implementation of concrete activities in the field, e.g. the role of joint planning, implementation and evaluation of activities, defining responsibilities of LAT members, involvement of all relevant structures and stakeholders, and ensuring conditions for sustainability of project activities.